What Was Patent #1?

Who had the honor to be granted the first United States patent? It seems like it should be an easy answer, but alas, it is not.

The Patent Office was established with the ratification of The Constitution in 1790. The first Patent Commission consisted of Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.

On July 13, 1790, President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson signed the Patent document granting a patent to Samuel Hopkins. The invention was a process for making potassium compositions used in potash and pearl ash which were integral in the production of soap and agricultural fertilizer. The problem, however, was that Inventor Hopkins’ patent was not numbered #1. In fact, there is even some controversy regarding the identity of Samuel Hopkins himself.

The Patent Office originally issued patents identified not by a number, but by the Inventor’s name and issuance date. This policy remained in effect until the Patent Act of 1836 which was signed into law on July 4, 1836. Later a fire in December 1836 destroyed most of the original patent records. It was estimated that nearly 10,000 patents had been granted between 1790 and 1836. The Patent Office recovered only 2845 patents using whatever available files that could be authenticated. The rest are lost to history.

The patents that were restored following the 1836 fire were then given a number preceded by an “X”. Therefore, Mr. Samuel Hopkins’ patent became X1. Patents that couldn’t be restored were simply cancelled. The remaining 2845 reconstructed patents became known as the “X Patents.”

Under the revised practice procedures legislated in the 1836 Patent Act, the first patent signified by the Number 1 went to Senator John Ruggles of Thomaston, Maine. His invention received Letters of Patent on July 13, 1836 for a cog mechanism used in locomotive wheels. Senator Ruggles’ design “multiplied tractive power to the locomotive” while preventing “the evil of the sliding of the wheels.”

So now you know the answer to who had the first United States Patent – it was both Samuel Hopkins, Patent # X1, and John Ruggles, Patent #1.